Beef and Bean Chili

This recipe is a concoction of stuff I had around the house and in food storage. I am trying to stretch our food budget and our food. This recipe includes leftovers from a previous freezer meal for Beef Burritos. This seemed like a great alternative to extend our food. The meat from the burritos stretched from burritos, to quesadillas and now to chili. All from one pot and one freezer bag. Three meals! I find that amazing. Talk about stretching a dollar. :) I may even be able to stretch this to one other meal. That would make four meals from one freezer meal! I'm thinking since this makes a TON of chili. You can reuse leftover chili from anything such as chili cheese dogs, to cornbread chili, and chili burgers. The list can go on and on. You could even make it into a cheese dip for chips. MMM my mouth is salivating thinking of all these possibilities. I digress... Well, here is the recipe for tonights chili. I hope you enjoy it. I know we will.

Ingredients:
2 cups leftover burrito beef (or other leftover meat)
2 cans corn (do not drain)
2 cans white beans (drained and rinsed)
1 can black beans, low sodium (drained and rinsed)
1 can chili beans
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can Rotel diced tomatoes with green chilies
1-2 cups chicken stock
1 1/2 tsp beef buillion
4-6 dashes of liquid smoke
2 tsp cilantro
1 tsp garlic, minced
2 tsp onion salt

Add all ingredients in slow cooker. Stir gently, not smashing the beans.  Set on low and cook until heated through or let simmer all day for a full blended flavor. I have mine set on low for 8 hours.

Serve with sour cream and cheese, tortilla chips or corn bread.

Everything but the kitchen sink chili

Today is going to be a long day for me. My oldest son is going on his first scout overnighter, I have a Girls Night Out... (yeah me!). I have to write one of my final papers for school, and the kids have a half day at school. Not to mention the house is messy and needs cleaning and laundry needs done. So I figured I needed a easy quick set it and forget it dinner. I pull out my trusty crock pot. Then I try to figure out what to put it it that is quick, easy and set it and forget it. I think that my cowboy stew would be nice and yummy. Then i remember i have leftovers from last night which was a raspberry vinaigrette pork loin. Which was just a low fat raspberry vinaigrette pored over a pork loin and cooked in the slow cooker all day. It was sweet, and tasty, lacked a little salt but other than that pretty good. So i figured I would try to make a chili of some sort without chili powder. Even if it is a sweet chili. Is there anything wrong with sweet chili... I don't think so. So I pull out my ingredients and away I go... Dump and stir then set it and forget it...

Ingredients:
2 cans chili beans
2 cans sweet corn
2 cups mixed sweet peppers, chopped/diced - I had orange, yellow and red
1 can tomato soup
1/2 cup bbq sauce
1 lb hamburger patties crumbled, browned with salt and pepper
leftover pork roast
1 onion chopped
1-2 cups of salsa medium
salt and pepper to taste

combine all ingredients in a slow cooker/crockpot for 8-10 hrs.

Serve with cornbread/corn chips with sour cream and cheese.

Cheeseburger Tortilla Pizzas

Tonight I needed to make pizza since tonight is pizza night. I wanted a change from the typical pizza. I didn't feel like making my own pizza dough and I am trying to save money and use what is in my house. I had a few packs of tortillas and some leftover meat and toppings from dinner last night. I thought... Cheeseburger Tortilla pizzas... And then I decided to google tortilla pizzas to see how others made theirs. I read a few that mentioned brushing some olive oil on the tortillas and then bake them in the oven for 400F for 3-5 minutes. So I followed that step. Then I followed my own way. Here is what I did.

Ingredients:

3 precooked hamburger patties roughly chopped

1 tomato

1 diced onion

5 cheddar slices of cheese diced or shredded

1/2 can of spaghetti sauce

1/4 head of lettuce

6 flour tortillas

olive oil

Lightly brush olive oil on flour tortillas and bake in the oven for 3-5 minutes at 400F. (Tortillas will puff up, just keep them from browning). Remove from the oven

and top with spaghetti sauce, tomato, onion, and cheddar dices.

Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes at 400F. Remove from oven when the and use your pizza cutter and slice into 4 pieces. Top with shredded lettuce and eat.

Verdict..

Very tasty, I had two of these, the tortilla was like a thin crust pizza. Very tasty. I bribed my kids with chocolate ice cream if they eat it without too much trouble... It worked. they ate their own 4 slices of pizza. It was nice. The ice cream was a nice treat too. I hope you try this, I will definitely do this one again, but next time might be Taco tortilla pizzas... Enjoy.

Chili with leftovers

I was thinking of not posting this recipe since it isn't completely from scratch, but I guess some of the things in here I made from scratch so I'll post it :) This isn't my normal chili, but it works in a pinch.

I tried to use some of the leftovers I had in the fridge so I didn't have to work too hard in the kitchen today. here's what I did.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup leftover sloppy joe mixture (leftovers)

1 1/2 cup taco meat (leftovers)

2 cans store bought chili with beans

3 tbsp chili powder

2 tsp cumin

2 tsp paprika

1 can sweet cream corn (for sweetness)

Put all ingredients in the crock pot and let simmer for 2 hrs on high.

I am serving it with rice, cheese and sour cream.

VERDICT!

My son tested the chili and said it was a little sweet. (maybe they will eat more of it :)) It is very good, not very sweet, it has a nice flavor. The kids said it was the BEST chili they had ever had. Braeden had two bowls, I was a piggy and had two bowls, and the others ate their bowls clean... I will definitely be making this chili again. I will try to make taco's, and sloppy jo's in the same week, for this yummy leftover chili. It really was good. :) My Texas roots would be proud. :) It had a nice after taste, and flavor. Not too spicy that the kids wouldn't eat it, but just enough of a kick to be flavorful. :) A definite winner :) Enjoy!

Personal Beef Pot Pies

Ok, well, I think this is such a great idea that I had to make personal beef pot pies. My kids absolutely love pot pies! We are all kind of pot pie junkies... well, anyways. I had this leftover beef stew that I made last week and I was trying to think what to do with it now. Then when I told my son that I was making pot pies he said he wanted beef pot pies. Well, then it hit me... use the leftover beef stew, it's practically what is inside anyways. So, I used the leftover beef stew from last week, and make this yummy beef pot pie. You can really put just about anything in it. I was going to make a chicken one, but this worked even better, less time to make, and so healthy! :) and yes, I made the crust from scratch. :) Courtesy of the Deseret Cookbook. :) I doubled the pie crust recipe since I was making 6 individual pot pies, double crusted. :)

Crust Ingredients: (makes one double crust)

2 cups flour (sifted)

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup oil

1/4 cup milk

Combine the flour and salt. Then measure in a measuring cup the oil and milk WITHOUT stirring, then add all at once to the four mixture, the milk/oil mixture. Stir slightly until bleached with fork.

Roll out 1/2 pastry to 1/8" thickness between two pieces of wax paper to fit pie plate. Remove the wax paper and place rolled out crust into pie plate.

Fill with filling either sweet or savory, then with remaining pastry dough, roll out to 1/8" thickness the same way, place on top of filling, cut off excess dough and flute edges either with fingers or a fork. Make slits or decorations as desired for escape of steam. Bake according to individual recipe.

Filling:

Left over Beef stew, can be found further down in my blog.

*Bake in a 375F oven for 30-35 min. Checking at 25 min to see if browned on top and bubbly/done :)

I used an egg wash (1 egg and a little water) brushed on top of my pies and then sprinkled with a little Ms. Dash. For added flavor and flair.

I hope you enjoyed this, I will use this same pie crust for my other homemade pies. You will see it again.. :)

Chunky Veggie Beef Stew

Ok, So I had a little left over from my beef roast yesterday. I decided I didn't want to do too much mess today, since I'm still trying to finish from the mess this weekend. So I decided to use up some veggies in the fridge, and the left over beef from dinner last night. Here's what I created.

It looks like a yummy beef stew, with chunks of veggies, big carrot bits, potatoes, zucchini, squash, spinach, and onions. With bite size chunks of the yummy roast from last night. Ah, my mouth is already watering. Because most of my carrots are still raw, I cut them up and layered them on the bottom of the pan, to help them cook better. Then I placed the red potatoes that only need heating from yesterday on top of the carrots. Then the fresh veggies went on top of that. Covered in the gravy from the beef roast last night, which had carrots and onions in it. Then cut up the beef into small bite size pieces and put that on top. I had found about 1 cup or 1 1/2 cup of beef stock in the fridge to add a little extra beef flavoring and liquid to the meal. Now it's all sitting in the slow cooker. Dinner will be yummy. I will either make biscuits, or rolls to go with it. I haven't decided yet. along with an apple pie for dessert. Tempted to make another dutch apple pie like I made last night, it was a huge hit!

Chucky Veggie Beef Stew

Ingredients:

6 carrots, cut into chunks

1 zucchini sliced and chunks

2 small squashes sliced and chunked

5 baby red potatoes (mine are left over from a previous meal, and precooked)

Brown gravy about 2 cups (mine is is from a previous meal, leftover)

1 box chopped spinach (drained)

1 1/2 cup beef broth

about 1 lb or 1 1/2 lb beef roast (leftover from previous meal) cut into bite size pieces

1/2 onion for flavor, cut into large chunks

Add all ingredients into slow cooker, low for 6 hours. High for 3 hours.

Serve with rolls or biscuits.

The verdict> I was surprised by how well this turned out. My husband didn't think the kids would eat it. I had my reservations, but I had hoped they would. And to his surprise and my gratitude,... they ate it all, well at least all of their portion. I have enough for a second night of soup. That will be part of our leftovers night. :) But they all said how yummy it was and that they liked the spinach and the zucchini. Those were amazing words coming from my kids. It was a tasty and satisfying soup. I'll be making this again. :)